With this lesson plan, your students will create a symbol that reflects their own distinct sense of self and explains their artistic choices, helping them appreciate the development and usage of symbolism in art and literature.

Learning Objectives

Upon completion of this lesson, students will be able to:

Communicate the importance of symbolism

Identify important elements of a symbol

Create a symbol that figuratively reflects their distinct sense of self

Length

45-60 minutes

Curriculum Standards

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.1.D

Establish and maintain a formal style and objective tone while attending to the norms and conventions of the discipline in which they are writing.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.W.9-10.2.D

Use precise language and domain-specific vocabulary to manage the complexity of the topic.

'Who Are You' Exercise

Tell students that they will be creating symbols to represent themselves and their personal identities. Explain that you are going to start by asking students to free associate about themselves. Ask students to take out a piece of paper, and create three columns.

Ask the following questions, giving students a chance to write down their answers individually between each question. Instruct them to write their answers in column one.

What is your favorite academic subject?

What colors are significant to you?

What is your favorite food?

What are your three favorite hobbies?

Where would you most like to travel?

Ask students to answer the following questions in column two.

If you were an animal, what would you be?

If you could have lunch with any person from history, who would it be?

If you could live inside any story/movie, which would it be?

If you were a plant, what would you be?

If you were a non-living object, what would you be?

Ask students to answer the following questions in column three.

Where do you feel most at home?

What is your relationship like with your family?

What five words describe your personality?

What would your friends say are your best traits?

What are your top three goals in life?

Create Your Symbol

Explain to students that symbolic representation is important in art, literature, and many other forms of expression.

Instruct students to look over their lists and come up with a symbol that represents who they are. Their symbol can be something from the list, or something else. It can be a real object in the world, or an abstract design. It can be minimalistic or complex, realistic or stylized, colorful or black/white. The only real criteria are that these decisions must be conscientious and thought out. Write these terms on the board, and ask students if there are any other artistic elements that define the success of a symbol.

The only thing their symbol cannot be is a literal image of their own face or body. It must be a figurative representation.

Give students 15-30 minutes to craft their symbol.

In addition to their symbol, students will be asked to write a short explanation of their symbol. Tell students to embrace their personality and creativity, and construct their explanation in the format that means the most to them. Their explanation can be:

a poem

a piece of prose, or

an academic essay

Optional: If your students are comfortable with each other and benefit from sharing, have them present and explain their symbols to the class.

Summary:

Earning College Credit

Did you know… We have over 160 college
courses that prepare you to earn
credit by exam that is accepted by over 1,500 colleges and universities. You can test out of the
first two years of college and save thousands off your degree. Anyone can earn
credit-by-exam regardless of age or education level.